China News Service, Ningbo, November 12th (Lan Yini) On November 12th, a press conference on the construction of a commodity resource allocation hub in the China (Zhejiang) Free Trade Pilot Zone (hereinafter referred to as the "Zhejiang Pilot Free Trade Zone") was held in Ningbo, Zhejiang. It introduced the construction status of the country's first commodity resource allocation hub since it was launched in Zhejiang, as well as the key directions for future efforts.
2027 is a critical year for the construction of a commodity resource allocation hub. Many key reforms have entered a critical period. Zhejiang will take the lead in many aspects and enhance its global commodity resource allocation capabilities through institutional opening up.
Chen Zhicheng, deputy director of the Zhejiang Provincial Free Trade Office, deputy director and spokesperson of the Provincial Department of Commerce, said that it is necessary to consolidate the foundation, invigorate the market, open the door, and promote the continuous deepening of the construction of bulk hubs around the three aspects of storage, transportation and processing, trade transactions, and business environment.
Focusing on the innovation of trade transactions, Zhejiang will explore the creation of a credible trade environment with "four consistent flows" of contract flow, cargo flow, capital flow, and invoice flow. Based on the construction of a bulk characteristic comprehensive bonded area, Zhejiang will create a policy environment and industrial environment that adapts to the development of international bulk trade. It will also deepen the application of blockchain technology, especially in the fields of warehouse receipts and bills of lading.
The implementation of institutional openness cannot be achieved without the support of ports. In recent years, Zhejiang has made great progress in building a world-class port, laying a solid foundation for the construction of a commodity resource allocation hub. The cargo throughput of Ningbo Zhoushan Port exceeded 1.4 billion tons, ranking first in the world for 17 consecutive years; the Ningbo Zhoushan International Shipping Center Development Index ranked sixth in the world.
Liu Dewei, deputy director of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Marine Economy, said that he will continue to promote port support from "guaranteeing smooth traffic" to improving resource allocation capabilities, global radiation, institutional innovation, and international competitiveness. The focus is to continue to strengthen hub functions, expand open networks, and optimize institutional supply, and continue to enhance the resilience and efficiency of the bulk commodity supply chain with the hard-core results of building a world-class port.
Focusing on key nodes for the convenient and efficient flow of bulk commodities, Zhejiang continues to optimize customs supervision services. For example, Ningbo Customs simplifies the process through institutional innovation, promotes the "functional superposition" of bonded warehouses and export supervision warehouses, and supports the port to improve its green fuel refueling capabilities; it optimizes the ship supply declaration process, pioneers the "ship supply first, customs declaration later" model, supports the bonded LNG "one ship, multiple supply" model, and greatly improves ship supply efficiency.
Ye Jian, Deputy Commissioner of Ningbo Customs, introduced that Ningbo Customs has also independently developed the "Yongzhi" AI-assisted inspection smart suite for the import of recycled metals, carried out drone inspections and tablet terminal dual-scenario operations, and the accuracy of recycled metal category identification has reached more than 90%; it has implemented "smart commodity inspection" reforms for iron ore categories to achieve non-sensory supervision of the entire unloading process of imported iron ore.
In the field of maritime services, Zhejiang uses institutional innovation to promote the iterative upgrade of the green ship fuel refueling system. As an important international ship refueling port, Zhoushan has taken the lead in introducing a green transformation action plan for ship fueling, launching the country's first biofuel oil blending and refueling, green methanol refueling at shipyard terminals, and cross-port LNG refueling. In terms of customs clearance facilitation, the local government has also implemented convenient measures such as "one-window acceptance" for ship refueling and one-time entry and exit processing.
Li Kui, deputy secretary of the Zhoushan Municipal Party Committee and deputy director of the Zhoushan Management Committee of the Zhejiang Pilot Free Trade Zone, said that the next step will be to focus on the commodity resource allocation hub, accelerate the construction of a global bonded bunker bunkering center, improve supporting services, expand the scale of green bunker bunkering, strengthen rules and standards, and strive to contribute to improving the comprehensive competitiveness of maritime services and expanding high-level opening up to the outside world.
In addition to single-point breakthroughs, Zhejiang is simultaneously promoting integrated innovation. For example, Ye Miao, a member of the Party Leadership Group of Ningbo Municipal Government and Director of the Ningbo Economic and Technological Development Zone Management Committee, said that Ningbo adheres to the "two-pronged approach" of hard construction and soft environment, and accelerates the layout of a commodity industry chain with distinct categories, complete chains, and complete functions. "Next, Ningbo will continue to in-depth promote the reform and innovation of the whole industry chain integration of 'storage, transportation, trade, industrial services, and data', increase efforts to promote the deep integration of the commodity industry chain, supply chain, and value chain, and accelerate the overall transformation into a resource allocation hub and an industrial service hub."
